Chapter 23: Using a Database

Chapter 23

Using a Database

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

Create a connection to a database by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.
Retrieve data from a database and browse it graphically in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Fetch data from an SQL Server database by using ADO.NET.

In Part IV of this book, you learned how to use Microsoft Visual C# to build user interfaces and present information. In Part V, you will learn about managing data by using the data access functionality available in Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework. The chapters in this part of the book describe ADO.NET, a family of objects specifically designed to make it easy to write applications that use databases. If you have previously used Microsoft Visual Basic 6 or Microsoft Access for building applications, you will see that ADO.NET is an updated version of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) designed and optimized for the .NET Framework common language runtime.

IMPORTANT
To perform the exercises in this chapter, you must have installed Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is provided with Visual Studio 2005, and can also be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/default.asp.